Typically, a thermal transfer recording medium is called a thermal ribbon, and, for example, is used as the ink ribbon of a thermal transfer type printer.
As a conventional thermal transfer recording medium, there is the media described in PTLs 1 and 2. PTLs 1 and 2 describe a thermal transfer recording medium that includes a thermal transfer layer on one surface of a base material, and includes a heat-resistant lubricating layer (back coat layer) on the other surface of that base material. Here, the thermal transfer layer includes a layer (dye layer) that includes ink, and that ink is sublimated (sublimation transfer method) or melted (melt transfer method) by the heat generated by the thermal head of the printer, and transferred to the transfer-object.
Here, there are various demands on a thermal transfer recording medium such as high thermal transfer printing speed, high density and high quality of thermally transferred images, for example.
However, when the inventors performed printing with a high-speed sublimation transfer type printer using a thermal transfer recording medium as described in PTLs 1 and 2, sufficient print density was not obtained, abnormal transfer and the like occurred when performing thermal transfer at high temperature and high humidity, and it was not possible to obtain printed matter having a satisfactory quality with the conventional thermal transfer recording medium.